


Mutual Interests

by seki



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-09-22 22:17:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17068181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seki/pseuds/seki
Summary: One night, interrupted unexpectedly, that brings a new understanding.





	Mutual Interests

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daskerlizard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daskerlizard/gifts).



> You requested 'two princes/kings learning how to share a beloved adviser, be it in the bedroom or for mundane tasks, up to you!' and this is what fell out of my brain! I hope you enjoy it. Best wishes of the season to you! ♥

Ignis is warm, content and almost asleep when he hears the faint tap-tap at the door of his suite.

"What was that?"

"I think someone knocked. I'll go check."

"Mm." Ravus drops his head back into the pillow. "It's the middle of the night. Tell them to go away."

Ignis pulls on underwear, belts his dressing gown tight, smooths his hair back and puts on his glasses in case it's a _Citadel_ emergency. It shouldn't be, this close to the solstice, not when all the business of government is put on hold for a week, but there's always a chance. He pulls his bedroom door nearly closed and crosses the living room.

It's Noctis at the door, Ignis sees through the spyhole, and he wrenches the door open hastily. "What's wrong?"

"I… um, I had a bad dream." Noctis rubs at the back of his neck, looking awkward, and Ignis pulls him inside. "Sorry. I didn't mean to intrude, I just couldn't sleep and, um. I missed you."

"Oh."

"I know it's late."

"It's fine. You're welcome here anytime." The door to Ignis's bedroom opens, a fraction wider than before, and Ignis amends that. "I'm afraid you'll have to have the sofa."

Noctis blinks in surprise, then shrinks down inside his coat. "Shit, sorry, I forgot he'd be here tonight."

Ignis rather doubts that; when Noctis isn't staying the night, Ravus almost always _is_. It's been easier to navigate than Ignis feared, this situation in which he gets to date Ravus _and_ Noctis. Neither of them can resist the odd snide remark at the expense of the other, but on the whole, Ignis feels supremely lucky that he gets to have both of them in his life.

Even so, he schedules them carefully to ensure neither feels cheated of a fair amount of his time. Noctis has hitherto treated Ravus's nights with Ignis as inviolable. Something must be out of the ordinary here.

"I'll take the sofa," Noctis says, and he musters up a smile that doesn't reach his eyes. "Tell Ravus I'm sorry. I just… I need to not be in my rooms, I think."

Ignis leans against the back of the sofa. If Noctis is _this_ unsettled, Ravus can wait. "What was the dream?"

"Water." Noctis swallows, hard. "It's the rain on the balcony, I think, sometimes… it makes me remember Leviathan, and the battle, and everything else. It was more vivid than usual this time."

Ignis reaches out, pulls Noctis into a hug. None of them had come out of that day unscathed. The memories linger, surging up to haunt the survivors years later. And he knows from experience that Noctis's idea of a bad dream is the sort that wakes you, cold sweats and heart pounding, and which haunts you for days. Noctis is going to need to be comforted, held, talked to, until he feels safe enough to fall asleep again. There's a chance he won't sleep at all.

Ignis wonders if he should apologise to Ravus, explain the situation quietly, see if Ravus wants to stay or go.

The bedroom door creaks open. "For the love of all that is holy, it is two in the morning," Ravus drawls. "Come back to bed. Bring him with you, if you must."

Noctis pushes Ignis away. "I'm good," he says, his spine stiffening. "Sofa's just fine."

"No, it isn't." Ravus is in one of Ignis's spare dressing gowns, a short one with a hem that skims the edge of his behind in a spectacularly louche fashion, showing off a lot more of Ravus than Noctis has ever probably seen before. It's rather a pity, Ignis thinks, that he can't spare _that_ the attention it deserves. "I'm offering you a space in our bed. Come on."

"But… no, I shouldn't intrude, I mean--"

"Rather late for that concern. Bed, if you please."

There's enough steel in Ravus's voice to make it a command, which Ignis could have told him is _not_ the way to get Noctis to do much of anything. But to his surprise, Noctis just nods, meekly. "Fine."

Ignis follows them in, and because it seems obvious, gets in first, into the middle. Ravus and Noctis each take a side, and Ravus makes a minor fuss of sorting out the pillows so they each have at least one. Noctis shucks his trousers, and curls up a bit, facing away from Ignis, a clear invitation to spoon him if ever there was one.

Ravus snuffs the lamps, doffs the gown and drapes himself against Ignis's back, entirely nude and with metal hand loosely resting on Ignis's upper arm, and Ignis thinks, my word. Trapped, pressed between both lovers. He's had fantasies on this theme, ridiculous ones where Ravus and Noctis discard their carefully cultivated public rivalry in favour of open affection, others where that same rivalry sparks a competitive need to outdo each other in pleasing Ignis.

The reality is less erotic. Noctis is almost _tangibly_ unhappy, though Ignis suspects the strangeness of being in a bed with Ravus is at least distracting him. Ignis pulls him close, curls his arm around Noctis's waist. He feels terribly cold to the touch.

At least Ignis's rooms only look over a covered courtyard, unlike Noctis's with their view over the Grand Plaza. The rain Noctis describes is barely audible here. Perhaps that will help.

Wthin a minute or so, Noctis is shivering, uncontrollable shakes that make the whole bed shudder with him.

"Shhh," Ignis murmurs, into the nape of his neck. "Shh, love. Shh. It's okay."

Noctis ducks his head further down, mute. It's not a good sign. Ignis desperately hopes there are no tears. Tears mean Noctis really _won't_ sleep tonight.

"It's past," he says, soothingly. "It's long past. You know Lunafreya is at peace. She doesn't blame you."

Ravus makes a faint, muffled noise into the pillow behind Ignis, and then he sits up and flips on the bedside light. "Noctis," he says, wearily. "Am I to surmise that you dreamt of my sister's death?"

Noctis nods, huddled up as he is, and Ignis looks over his shoulder at Ravus. _Yes_ , he mouths, unsure what Ravus is planning on saying, but deciding to put his faith in him all the same.

"It's the rain, I suppose. I've dreamt of that day too," Ravus says. "A thousand times or more, whenever the weather turns sour and I hear water battering against stone walls. I relive it, all the poor choices, all the bad decisions. And there were many."

Ignis tightens his arm around Noctis, who seems to be listening, even if he's still non-verbal.

"I miss Lunafreya every single day. But I know she went willingly, as she would have wanted to. She would scoff at how maudlin her memory makes me."

Ignis glances at Ravus, who has a fond smile on his face, and not nearly as much sadness as Ignis would expect.

"I met with her in Altissia, you know. I begged her not to summon Leviathan. The toll that summoning the Astrals was taking on her was too high. She was so weak already."

Noctis makes an odd noise, then turns and sits up. His eyes look red-rimmed, but Ignis can't tell if any tears actually fell. "What?"

Ravus blinks, and then looks over at Noctis. "What do you mean, what?"

"Luna was… weak?"

"Not in spirit." Ravus raises his chin. "She had the strongest spirit I've ever known, and--"

"No, no, I mean, you said, summoning the Astrals was hurting her."

Ravus nods. "Yes. It was brutal, the channelling. She could scarcely stand, when I saw her. But my sister was pure will and spirit. She withstood her pain, in order to assist in the defeat of the Starscourge. She had no regrets, and she was willing to sacrifice herself."

Noctis flops back, against the pillow. "I didn't know."

"I doubt she would have wanted you to. You saved the world with her help. As she wished. That is the finest tribute to her memory." Ravus tilts his head to one side, eyebrows furrowed in consideration of something. "I dare say she'd find _this_ very entertaining, the three of us here."

Ignis, trying to gently push his way through to sit up between them, can't quite suppress a snort of amusement at that.

"My sister," Ravus says, leaning _over_ Ignis, towards Noctis, "would never have stood for this open relationship business."

Noctis bares his teeth in something like a grin. "You think she'd mind me sharing Ignis?"

"Sharing _you_." Ravus narrows his eyes. "She adored you. She longed to marry you."

That makes Noctis scowl, and he pulls back, enough that Ignis now feels like he's being used as a barrier. "She didn't even know me. Not really."

"She believed she knew your soul." Ravus also shifts, physically. A retreat on both sides, Ignis thinks. "Not so long ago, I used to wish she had married you. And not only because it would have meant she survived."

Ignis takes Noctis's hand under the sheet.

"But because then Ignis might not have pined for you so hard, all those years." Ravus tips his head to one side, gives Ignis one of those rare soft, unguarded expressions of affection. "And I wouldn't have been so overwrought as to pick a battle with him, fruitlessly, there in the wreckage of Altissia."

It's one of those memories Ignis picks at, sometimes. Ravus, so overwrought with grief that he would have killed Noctis, and yet unwilling to cut Ignis down to do so. Had the situations been reversed, Ignis isn't sure he'd have held back.

"You came to your senses soon enough," Ignis says. "Sending Noctis after me that day likely saved my life."

Noctis makes a thoughtful noise, and then slides back down the bed, pressed against Ignis's side. "I'm glad he had you, you know," he says, to Ravus. "All those years in the dark. You were good for him. _Are_."

A compliment. Ignis holds his breath.

"And I am glad you came back to him," Ravus says, and he too moves down the bed a little, so they're gazing at each other across Ignis's chest. "And that you did not demand he set me aside."

"Not up to me," Noctis says, immediately. "He loves you."

"And you."

"Yep."

They stare at each other, as if they were cats sizing one another up.

"Well," Ignis says, to break the tension. "You're right. From all I know of her, I daresay Lady Lunafreya would have found it very entertaining, had her husband's lover's lover also been her brother."

Noctis and Ravus both look up at him, startled, and then they're both smiling in that reluctant way that means he's made a joke that's funny but that they don't quite want to laugh at. It makes the two of them, so dissimilar in appearance, have a sudden superficial resemblance that makes Ignis feel desperately fond and lucky.

"Now then," Ignis says, to mask the fluttering of overflowing _love_ in his heart. "Why don't we all try to get some sleep, hm?"

Ravus looks at Noctis, and Noctis looks at Ravus.

"Sleep, you say," Ravus says, musingly.

"That is what he said," Noctis says, and he slides a hand across Ignis's stomach, sending a prickle of confused arousal up Ignis's spine. "But I'm not sleepy now."

Ravus scowls at him, an ostentatious insincere scowl, and pushes Noctis's hand away with his own. "This is _my_ night with him, your Majesty."

Noctis puts his hand back, just above Ravus's. "Yeah, but you invited me into the bed. So. Share him?"

There's a pause, and then they both look at Ignis's face again, with another pair of disconcertingly similar expressions. Instead of repressed amusement, this time there's _desire_ , and a plea for permission, mixed with that competitive gleam that Ignis had only expected to see in his fantasies.

Oh.

Oh _my word_.

Ignis counts his many, many blessings, and lets himself be doubly claimed.


End file.
